New Delhi, April 30 -- For Indian investors, the term Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) has become synonymous with sprawling IT parks. Since the first REIT was listed in India in 2019, the market has been dominated by a very specific asset - Grade-A office space. More recently, Indian REITs are beginning to shed their 'office-only' image as they start to mirror a transformation that seasoned global markets underwent decades ago.

To understand where India is going, we first have to look at where the rest of the world already is. Globally, the REIT market is a much larger universe of specialized assets. In mature markets like the United States, Singapore or Japan, you can invest in REITs that own almost anything. These could include cell...